Depression Counseling in Fanwood, NJ.

I have extensive experience working with depression, from mild forms to severe, cripplling depression. Sometimes depression can seem like the world around you has changed, leaving you isolated and feeling all alone. At times some may feel unable to go on with their daily life. I help you identify the root causes of depression and can provide strategies to move through and onwards with life.

I will determine the severity of depression and the need for medication. We will figure out if depression is an acute response to a crisis or situation. We will look at the causes, your experience of depression, what are triggers for depression, and ways to cope with it and give you better control of it. If it is a recurrent depression we will find ways for you to cope, and develop good support networks if you don't have them.

Depression can make everyday tasks feel exhausting and can leave you feeling disconnected from yourself and the people around you. Counseling helps clients understand what is fueling low mood, hopelessness, lack of motivation, or emotional numbness while building realistic steps toward relief. Treatment focuses on improving day-to-day functioning, increasing energy, strengthening coping skills, and creating healthier thought patterns. Clients often benefit from a consistent, nonjudgmental space where they can talk honestly and begin to feel more like themselves again.

Is sadness and despair overwhelming your experience of yourself and the world? Do you feel as if a dark cloud is hovering over you? Do even the simplest things seem too difficult to accomplish? Do you wish you could just leave, even though you don’t even know where to go? Are feelings of helplessness overwhelming you? If you can identify with these descriptions, then you may be struggling with clinical depression. Depression can be temporary striking because of overwhelming life events or it can be more persistent. Regardless of its source, there is effective treatment for these symptoms. Let's work together to help you bring hope and joy back into your life.

Depression is a mood disorder where it is important to seek out a professional. Chris has treated many people with depression and other mood disorders. Millions of Americans are effected by Anxiety and Depression with various symptoms of low mood, irritability, loss of pleasure. As a veteran psychotherapist who has treated many clients with depression, proper assessment is essential that can include coordinating care with a physician. While not all individuals need medication, having a therapist who can identify symptoms and offer empathy and understanding to individuals who suffer from a mental health disorder is beneficial. Chris uses a cognitive behavior therapy approach to help clients.

Children and adolescents who act out due to symptoms of AD/HD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, and School Underachievement constantly receive negative feedback from parents, teachers, and peers. This results in underlying feelings of helplessness and hopelessness leading to depression. I motivate such children to develop self-control which leads to improved academic and social skills. This leads to social acceptance and academic achievement and self-esteem rises. Helplessness and hopelessness dissipate and depression and anxiety lessen.

Depression is a mood disorder that can cause a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest that can interfere with daily functioning. Reaching out for help is a step towards wellness. Symptoms of depression can vary from person to person, but it is a very treatable condition. Therapy for depression helps you overcome the feelings of hopelessness and despair and to gain control of your life.

I work with many people with depression whether as individuals, or in the context of couples therapy. I help people to become aware of their thoughts, feelings, and the experience they have in their bodies around their depression. I work cognitively and behaviorally to help them understand distorted thinking. I also work to "externalize" the feeling of depression, and help people understand that, "you are not your thoughts." Depression may be visiting you, but you are not depression. Mindfulness is a tool I use with depression to help people understand what is happening to them in the moment, and to begin to open to emotions that may be blocked.

Depression is often controlled by our unconscious feelings, thoughts, memories, and dreams. Drawing on Positive Psychology and other therapeutic models, I help clients to understand how we relive early experiences unconsciously, and I coach them on behavioral techniques they can use to overcome the vicious cycle of negativity and change their present. These include a blend of empirically based techniques clients can use at work or at home to overcome depression, end self-sabotage, and get unstuck.